Facebook to fight child porn with help from Microsoft

Facebook will use PhotoDNA, an image analysis technology co-invented by Microsoft, to scan all images uploaded to site

By Mikael Ricknäs IDG News

Facebook will use PhotoDNA, an image analysis technology co-invented by Microsoft, to find child pornography on its site, the company said on Thursday in a Youtube video.

The social networking giant will run PhotoDNA on all images uploaded to the site to help find and block images showing child pornography. The technology will also help Facebook report incidents to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the police, to allow them to take immediate action, according to Chris Sonderby, assistant general counsel at Facebook.

Microsoft worked with Dartmouth College in New Hampshire to develop PhotoDNA in 2009, and then freely licensed it to NCMEC for use in a program to combat the distribution of online child pornography. Microsoft itself began implementing PhotoDNA technology on Bing and SkyDrive, including images published to SkyDrive through Hotmail, it said in a blog post.